ELVET Programme

East London Vocational Education and Training (ELVET): Innovation through Partnership is a major programme aimed at supporting education, training, apprenticeship and employment opportunities for adults and young people in east London. It is designed to contribute to the provision of a qualified workforce for the area's fast-growing digital, creative and social care sectors.

Grant funded by the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, ELVET has been launched at a time when the local economy in east London is seeing a huge change with the influx of new industries. At the same time, major national reforms within the further education and skills system are taking place in areas such as apprenticeships, qualifications for adults and young people and institutional organisation.

Led by UCL Institute of Education (IOE) in partnership with the Association of Colleges (AoC) London, ELVET supports four Innovation Projects led by Barking and Dagenham College, New City College (Hackney), Newham College and New City College (Tower Hamlets) in partnership with a range of employers and other education and training providers.

Key Issues for the Programme

Supporting learners to develop skills for local employment and progression

Building effective partnerships between employers and education and training providers

Identifying effective partnership practices, in a variety of contexts, including sizes of provider and employer organisations, learner levels of learning and accreditation, employment sectors

Contributing to knowledge about local and regional high progression and skills ecosystems

Supporting local and regional bodies and networks to enhance learning, skills and partnership working

Anticipated Outcomes

The programme aims to improve collaborative vocational, professional and technical education and training in East London and to develop clear progression routes into further study and employment, with a particular focus on underserved communities.

In doing this we anticipate that the programme will support:

an increase in productive and sustainable collaboration between employers, education providers and local authorities to support economic and social change in East London

an overall increase in employer involvement in curriculum design and the teaching of students

an additional ten independent training providers and five adult and community learning providers engage with the Innovation Projects

a 10% increase in apprenticeship starts by August 2018 among the providers involved in the project (compared with the baseline of apprenticeship starts in 2015-16)

a 10% increase in the progression rates of learners into Level 3 and higher level programmes by August 2018, (compared with the baseline of progression rates in 2015-16) across all providers

a student-designed website

at least two research reports and four case studies on effective employer/ training provider collaboration produced and disseminated to inform practice in the wider FE and skills sector

a film, or series of short films, showcasing effective employer/training provider collaboration